The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Andrew explained why Ric Grenell's ousting by social cons demonstrated Romney's fundamental subordination to the GOP's most extreme faction, demonstrated why the incident proves the Republican party is hostile to gays of all stripes, explored the psychology of a gay Republican, showed just how committed Grenell was to the neoconservative cause, acknowledged the foulness of Grenell's old tweets, copped to some inconsistency on the issue, listened to readers and a dissent, and reacted to a foul outburst related to North Carolina's anti-gay Proposition 1 (video here). We spotlighted the effort to defeat the ballot initiative, labelled Romney "too risky for national security," bet Richard Lugar would be the next purged Republican, wondered what the GOP's problem was, checked in on Ron Paul, rolled our eyes at Americans Elect, raised a barrier for "political consumerism," and chuckled with Shep Smith – at Gingrich's expense.

Andrew also explored the role of IQ research in explaining global poverty, debuted the questions for Ask Bruce Bartlett Anything, and raised questions for the theory that Bibi had betrayed his father. We aired pushback against Moshe Arens' Malkin nomination, dove into the weird world of Iranian sexual frustration, read over the fine print in the new US-Afghanistan agreement, proposed the F-35 be the "poster child for Pentagon waste," and debated the relative merits of scholarships and military aid in the Middle East. The American economy always balanced public and private contributions, summer jobs slipped away, pre-K needed mor funds, raising special needs children got more complicated, the Court appeared in position to strike down affirmative action, birth control didn't require pap smears, and Facebook nudged you towards organ donations. Novels made for terrible soapboxes, The AvengersfoughtThe Dark Knight Rises in a war of ideas, black people stole "white" music, and the NFL saw another terribly sad day. There was no lonlieness epidemic and brain freeze came from blood. Ask Jim Manzi Anything here, Quotes for the Day here and here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.